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We've been around since 2004. If we allowed people to "opt out" of rules simply because they didn't help write them, most of our rules wouldn't apply to anyone. Furthermore, [[T:WRITE POLICY|there is no guarantee that every rule will be discussed by the community]]. | We've been around since 2004. If we allowed people to "opt out" of rules simply because they didn't help write them, most of our rules wouldn't apply to anyone. Furthermore, [[T:WRITE POLICY|there is no guarantee that every rule will be discussed by the community]]. | ||
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This policy does not apply to rules which have been vandalised. Since [[Tardis:Who writes policy|it is site policy that ''only'' admin (or their assignees) write policy]], only [[admin]] can determine whether a rule has been vandalised, or otherwise unofficially changed, so that it no longer reflects a valid, "current state". | This policy does not apply to rules which have been vandalised. Since [[Tardis:Who writes policy|it is site policy that ''only'' admin (or their assignees) write policy]], only [[admin]] can determine whether a rule has been vandalised, or otherwise unofficially changed, so that it no longer reflects a valid, "current state". | ||
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''Contrariwise'', this sometimes applies to things which have ''not'' actually been written anywhere (yet). Ideally, [[Tardis:Who writes policy|all past decisions and current practice ''should'' be written into explicit policy]], but nobody's perfect. It makes sense to have a policy that says "even if the current setup isn't codified by a specific policy, you shouldn't, on a whim, try and implement a change that would have ramifications on thousands of pages without starting a discussion". So, in the above policy, '''the word "policy" doesn't just apply to those decisions that have been officially enshrined through discussion, but also refers to operating procedures that apply to multiple pages over large periods of time with the express knowledge of admins''', even if these procedures technically contradict the results of a previous forum decision. Try not to make large scale changes to the wiki without opening a discussion about these changes first. | ''Contrariwise'', this sometimes applies to things which have ''not'' actually been written anywhere (yet). Ideally, [[Tardis:Who writes policy|all past decisions and current practice ''should'' be written into explicit policy]], but nobody's perfect. It makes sense to have a policy that says "even if the current setup isn't codified by a specific policy, you shouldn't, on a whim, try and implement a change that would have ramifications on thousands of pages without starting a discussion". So, in the above policy, '''the word "policy" doesn't just apply to those decisions that have been officially enshrined through discussion, but also refers to operating procedures that apply to multiple pages over large periods of time with the express knowledge of admins''', even if these procedures technically contradict the results of a previous forum decision. Try not to make large scale changes to the wiki without opening a discussion about these changes first. | ||
Of course, the difficult thing is that sometimes one does have to {{ | Of course, the difficult thing is that sometimes one does have to {{w|Wikipedia:Be bold|be bold}} for the good of the Wiki. If your edit is more ''constructive'' than it is ''[[T:POINT|disruptive]]'', you ''can'' sometimes make a judgment call to ignore "current practice", for example by introducing a new type of pages to cover information that was hitherto missing from the Wiki. This doesn't mean you should ignore ''written'' policy — just that you shouldn't ''always'' fear the gaps in the said written policy. | ||